Aaron Barnhart

This show has great casting, comedy that crackles and characters who show signs of actually possessing some depth to them. These are rare qualities for any TV show, which is why I ranked it my second-favorite new series of the fall. [22 Sept 2003, p.E8]

Hal Boedeker

A show that is sweet without being sappy, sexy without being sophomoric and witty without being nasty...This delight rests on the inspired casting of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer as brothers tossed together during a family crisis. Their pairing could be the best sitcom partnership since Jack Klugman teamed with Tony Randall on The Odd Couple. [21 Sept 2003, p.4]

Robert Bianco

What Men offers is the pleasure of watching people who know what they're doing do it well. Jones' mixture of bratty spunk and vulnerability keeps Jake from seeming too precocious or too cute. Sheen is so amusingly sardonic and cheerfully self-aware, he makes Charlie's immaturity endearing rather than annoying. And there just aren't many actors who are better at funny-fussbudget than Cryer -- or who have more polished comic skills.

Chuck Barney

The rather trite concept is freshened up by some colorful writing that actually happens to be funny, and by engaging "Odd Couple"-like performances from Sheen and Cryer, who play well off each other. The series is also a prime-time rarity - a sweet domestic comedy that isn't overly sappy. [22 Sept 2003, p.D01]

Tim Goodman

Ed Bark

It all makes for an easy-to-take sitcom whose best moment finds Jake and Charlie singing the theme song he wrote for Maple Loops cereal. There are some funny lines at a poker game, too, where the kid turns out to be quite a bluffer. [22 Sept 2003, p.12E]

Brian Lowry

Staff [Not Credited]

A word about the supporting cast: excellent. Holland Taylor is an expert at playing strong-willed, domineering women and shines as Evelyn, Charlie and Alan's mother. There are similarly strong contributions from Hinkle as Judith and from Melanie Lynskey as Rose, a nonthreatening stalker with a fixation on Charlie. [22 Sept 2003]

David Zurawik

The Sheen persona wears thin after a while, and Jones is just another kid actor with a goofy-sweet face. But what could make this sitcom fly is Cryer. He injects Alan with a manic energy that literally lifts the pilot into a higher comic gear each time he begins to catalog or rant about all his anxieties and fears. [22 Sept 2003, p.1C]

Mike Duffy

Two and a Half Men manages to generate some smiles. Series creator Chuck Lorre ("Dharma & Greg") has scrounged up a few funny moments for the series premiere. But not enough of them. [22 Sept 2003, p.6E]

David Bianculli

Sheen has no problem grounding the show, and encouraging viewers to laugh at his character. It's Cryer, though, who brings the more delightful offbeat energy to Two and a Half Men. When complaining about his wife's change of heart, he seems genuinely anxious and betrayed - but always manages to inject a flustered comic edge that makes the pain amusing, as well as real. [22 Sept 2003, p.77]

Glenn Garvin

Alan Sepinwall

Can someone please wake up Charlie Sheen? I know he's tried to build an entire career, Dean Martin-style, on half-lidded apathy, but as one-third of the new CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, he's practically comatose. [22 Sept 2003, p.T35]

Virginia Heffernan

If you're feeling charitable, too, you might wrench a laugh out of the final line of the pilot, one in which a woman in a grocery store mistakes Charlie and Alan for boyfriends. But it's testament to the show's thoroughgoing dreariness that an old gay-misunderstanding joke is the best line in it. Or maybe the moment is happy because the show's over.